Q-SYS Ecosystem delivers network audio and control to Harrington Hoists

Founded in 1867 and headquartered in Manheim, Pennsylvania, Harrington Hoists, Inc. is an international leader in the manufacture of industrial hoists, cranes, below-the-hook lifting devices and material handling equipment. Harrington Hoists, Inc. recently renovated adjacent portions of its Manheim manufacturing space to include a training facility and conference room. In addition to failsafe and foolproof teleconferencing capabilities in both spaces, management and staff wanted state-of-the-art audio-visual systems. QSC was primed for the challenge with the Q-SYS Ecosystem and its AcousticDesign™ Series loudspeakers.

Design-build firm Clair Solutions was brought in to help design the AV system. “Harrington had two primary goals,” explained Herb Suereth, Regional Sales Manager at Clair Solutions. “First, they wanted a reliable AV system that was simple to use, no matter how technically savvy the user was. They were also looking to add bring-your-own-device (BYOD) support to the conference room.”

The project timeline was tight, so Q-SYS was the perfect choice. A Q-SYS Core 110f processor handles the audio, video and control (AV&C) processing for both spaces. “Part of why we love working with Q-SYS is that all of the processing happens in a single device,” shared Joe Holcomb, Project Manager and System Designer at Clair Solutions. “This meant that far less programming was needed, since there are less interconnection points. Additionally, Q-SYS drag-and-drop programming helped in significantly expediting the installation.”

For conferencing purposes, the integrator deployed a Q-SYS PTZ-IP conference camera and the Q-SYS I/O-USB Bridge. The conference camera offers resolutions up to 1080p60 along with motorized pan, tilt and zoom functions for full room coverage, while the Q-SYS I/O-USB Bridge provides (BYOD) support for employees. This allows for a user to plug in their own laptop and get access to the Q-SYS audio and camera feeds for use in soft-codecs such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

The sound is delivered via QSC AcousticDesign ceiling-mount loudspeakers, providing high-quality, intelligible audio that has exceeded expectations. Clair Solutions utilized Q-SYS UCI Editor to build an intuitive user control interface (UCI), giving system operators control of the conference camera and audio controls in each room.  “The response from the client has been very positive so far,” adds Herb Suereth. “The system is easy to use and the QSC loudspeakers sound great in the space!”